Search Trends – What 2013 has is Store

As the social media landscape gets more crowded, businesses will battle in a competitive market. What use to be simple networking sites like Twitter and Orkut are now Google+, Facebook and LinkedIn. On top of that there will be lot of other social networking sites like foursquare, Instagram and Yelp which aim to take over the SMM market. The old success mantra of “be present everywhere” will be replaced by “where the business demands”. There will be many changes on social media front and the market will adapt it accordingly.

Here is what we believe awaits us in the coming year-

1. Launch of Google People: Google doesn’t have a Google author or Google People search option, though there is a high demand of authors. It has a leadership in market for information flooding in and capacity to deliver anything that is beyond any search engine capacity. After progressing dramatically in global arena, progressing now is difficult.

2. LinkedIn part of Global Search Engine: There is a possibility of linkedIn going the opposite way of Google and craetae a global search engine. Users who have their profiles listed on the network might use the search engine which could be built in a very traditional and unstructured style. They would add lot of blue links to it that would attract lot of traffic and interest. People who are connected in LinkedIn will have the opportunity to endorse their skills by profiling their connections. It will give access to links of the person or the profile searched.

3. Yandex chooses Scandinavian Countries: Predictions of Yandex team which is to launch its search engine in Scandinavian countries after turkey is quiet high as these countries are wealthy and have a history of successful local search engines. There is a cultural acceptance of local search support. Additional advantage of opening up here is Russia being Finland and Norway’s border.

4. Merger of App Search and Web Search: Since Website and App search do a similar job, merger is a high possibility. They can be listed together. Though Google is doing a similar job, it’s not universal. Hence this merger can work well. There should be a partnership between Web Index and an App world.

5. Siri is soon fading: it’s not too far that Siri’s cult status will diminish. Biggest flaw for this is inability to attract real search transaction outside English-Speaking world. It has not been able to create its brand image unlike lot of other search engines.

6. Bing at a Loss: Bing needs to make some serious changes for its success before it fails completely and losing its ground. Alliance of Bing-Yahoo has been a complete disaster globally except the US. It has lost its majority share in Asia. It needs to reverse the situation.

7. Twitter Holding the Centre Stage: Though it’s the centre of all the things, it’s stuck and needs to be a little innovative to enjoy that position for long. Improvisations on search functions can help a lot.

8. Facebooks Continued Struggle for Growing Up: Facebook struggles to hold its identity and purpose, instead of continued revenue from advertising and support services. It’s important to retain and engage its consumer base amongst the growing competition. Search would be a next step for Facebook, if executed well by its management.

Building up a search engine and then maintaining it for future is a very difficult task. Changes should be well supported by innovation.